Finnaly got over the Luddite and now have Kindle, mainly beacuse it came on my new computer. So I went nosng about. One joy is that it has acaess to a number of the Guntenberg Press free books. I have found a free copy of a book that I've been looking for , but printed copies have been ^&8) expensive. The book is Scapegoats of Empire by Gerorge Witton. It is the story of Witton's court martial as part of the infamous Breacker Morant and the Bushveldt Carbiners. Reffered to in the press of Australia at the time as the English Drefus Affair.
The story will be well known to our Australian memebers and was the subject of the Fi;lm Breacker Morant staring Edward Woodward, and well worth watching!
The basis is that during the Second South African (Boer) war in the early part of the 20th century. The Bushveldt Carbiners (BVC) were an irregular force officered by Australina's. Though to complicate matters Morant was English but lived in Australia, he and two others were charged with murder for excuting Boer Prioners and a German Missonary.
The mater rested on wether Morant had been given legal orders from superior officers not to take prisoners. Morant under cros examination on orders for dealing with prisoners replied 'We applied rule 303'.
The subject is complex covering when orders are legal, what would now be called Post Traumatic Stress, and genal British conduct during the war. As an aside because of this Austrlia and New Zealand would not allow their nationals to be courtmartiled by the British in WW1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaker_Morant